Wednesday

“I love strategy,” the 77 year-old Republican said, with a kind of twinkle in his eye. “I love to try to outwit opponents.”

Over much of the past half-century, the Penfield resident has labored to do just that as a Republican politician and office holder at the local and state levels. He once chaired New York’s Republican Party, twice ran for governor, and was instrumental in the selection of one of America’s vice presidents.

Rosenbaum’s book, “No Room for Democracy: The Triumph of Ego Over Common Sense,” portrays a life spent in the colorful, hard-charging world of politics, as well as the political philosophy of the man once nicknamed the “Iron Chancellor.”

“I believe that political parties have no room for democracy,” Rosenbaum said. The stronger the leadership, the greater the chance that a party would do well. “If the leadership has hopefully got some intelligence and good judgment, the party will do much better, than if it’s chaotic,” he added.

Rosenbaum’s office at the Rochester law firm of Nixon Peabody LLC illustrates a life spent in the trenches. Photos of him with past Republican presidents and party notables flank his chair. Other political memorabilia hangs from the other walls, along with a series of black and white pictures showing Rosenbaum, a onetime amateur boxer, in a 1975 exhibition match with ex-heavyweight boxing champion Floyd Patterson. Rosenbaum is on his back.

“He uncorked a left hook,” Rosenbaum said, chuckling.

Rosenbaum got his start in politics when he ran for a judgeship in Penfield in the early 1960s. Bald for many years due to a medical condition, he turned the condition to his advantage in a way that fit his own sense of humor.

“I handed out combs all over,” he said, laughing. Rosenbaum also pounded on doors all over Penfield, especially in the trailer parks that were largely Democratic, and won that election by a sizable margin.

By the late 1960s Rosenbaum had risen to head Monroe County’s Republican Party. There, he devised a strategy that took control of the Rochester City Council from the Democratic Party.

“We won four out of five City Council seats, and 24 of 29 County Legislature seats,” he explained.
County Legislator Paul Haney, who was a Democratic ward leader back then, called the Republican campaign for Rochester City Council “not a paradigm of civic virtue by any stretch of the imagination.” At the same time, he admitted Rosenbaum might not have known of the shenanigans of some of his fellow Republicans.

“Mr. Rosenbaum had had a nice reputation,” Haney said. “He has always been a charming individual.”

Rosenbaum said that when he ran for state Supreme Court Justice in 1970, he did so with the endorsement of the Democratic, Republican, Conservative and Liberal parties.

The Republican victories caught the eye of Gov. Nelson Rockefeller, who later talked Rosenbaum into heading the state GOP. Eventually, the plebeian millionaire and the self-described “small town guy” grew close.

“Our relationship grew to the point where we were like buddies,” Rosenbaum said.

When President Richard Nixon resigned in 1974, Vice President Gerald Ford assumed the presidency and began looking for his own vice president. Rosenbaum said that he worked behind the scenes to help engineer Rockefeller’s selection over that of George H. W. Bush. Bush was then chair of the entire Republican Party and the favorite of many party leaders.

In 1976, Ford caved into pressure from party conservatives and picked Kansas Sen. Bob Dole as his 1976 running mate. Rosenbaum believes the Ford’s selection of Rockefeller could have helped win the White House, and kept it for Republicans beyond Ford’s administration.

“If I could have been more involved with Rockefeller earlier on, I really think I could have devised a strategy (that) would have made him President of the United States,” he said.

Rosenbaum is one of the few of Rockefeller’s confidants willing to speak of Megan Marshack, the aide in whose apartment Rockefeller died. “No Room” refers to Marshack as Rockefeller’s “mistress.”

“I know he was running around with her,” Rosenbaum said. “According to my sources, he really was thinking about marrying her.”

Rockefeller’s death in 1979 came as a personal blow. “He was like a second father to me.”

Rosenbaum remained in politics long after leaving Rockefeller’s side, even taking on a 1994 primary battle with then-state Sen. George Pataki for the Republican candidacy for governor, which Pataki won. Though he’s not as active in Republican politics as he once was, Rosenbaum still enjoys running into those whom he met while in the trenches—especially folks who helped him get that first seat on Penfield’s bench.

“They come up with a comb,” he said, smiling.

Penfield Post

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